How to Navigate New York City

Many people have trouble getting around New York when they go there for the first time. Even New Yorkers occasionally get on the wrong train. Here are some tips for navigating the city.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Subway map
• Map of NYC

1. 
   The 5 boroughs of New York

   First you should look at a map to understand the basic layout of New York City. Manhattan is an island and contains the main metropolitan area, and Central Park is roughly in the middle of it. The Bronx is the borough to the north of Manhattan and is part of the mainland of the state of New York. Queens is the borough to the east of Manhattan, and Brooklyn is the borough to the southeast. Queens and Brooklyn are both part of Long Island. Staten Island is the borough due south of Manhattan and can only be reached by ferry, while The Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens all have bridges to Manhattan.

2. 
   Finding a cab is usually easy in Manhattan.

   Getting a cab: This is probably the first thing you'll have to do since you'll be going from a train station or airport to your hotel or other destination. When you hail a cab, tell them the cross streets closest to your destination. Example: 65th and Amsterdam. You always say the street first and the avenue second. You also need to specify which borough the cross street is in if you need to leave the one where you hailed the cab, or if you are starting in Jersey.

3. 

   Understanding the streets of New York: On the Island of Manhattan, avenues run from North to South, and Streets run from East to West. This means that if you are walking on an avenue, and the street numbers you cross are getting higher, you are moving North. If you are walking on a street, and the numbers of the avenues you cross are getting higher, you are walking west. Central Park divides Manhattan into the East Side and the West Side, so if you walk from Broadway to 5th Avenue on 55th street, you will notice that the signs where you start say 55th West and the signs where you finish say 55th East.

4. 
   The extensive subway system of New York

   Navigating the subway system: Many visitors are intimidated by the subways, but have no fear, they are actually fairly easy to use. You can obtain a paper map of the subways from an attendant's station inside the tunnels. There are also large maps posted around the stations and even inside the trains. If you're planning ahead, you can also find maps online on the website of the Manhattan Transit Authority. Though the maps are very useful, you also need to be aware of any postings around the subway stations that indicate a certain line is closed. If you can't figure out how to reach your destination, just ask an attendant; they know all about the lines and the track changes.

5. 
   Be sure to get on the train going in the right direction.

   How to know which Subway line to take: The trains in Manhattan run uptown (north) and downtown (south), and all the tracks are marked for which direction they go. The uptown trains are divided into "Uptown and the Bronx" (north) and "Uptown and Queens" (northeast). The downtown trains are marked "Downtown and Brooklyn." There are no trains running through the center of Central Park, which can make going between the East and West sides difficult, but there are cross-town buses that drive through the park.

6. Have fun navigating the great city of New York!

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to tip your cab driver
• Don't be afraid to ask for directions, especially from subway station attendants. They are there to help.
• Don't panic if you miss your stop on the subway or get on the wrong train. If all else fails, you can always just go back to where you came from.
• When you are walking, you should know that one block between two avenues is much longer than one block between two streets.

Resources

• MTA subway map
• Boroughs of New York, Wikipedia
• Google Maps, New York, NY

[ven411]

on 9/25/2009 Good, informative article, fellow New Yorker! Gave it 5* I also wrote an article about the most effective way to navigate NY on foot. Cheers!